We went on swimmingly, passing through the Seneca reservation, where the picturesque costume of the Indians seen on shore served to give additional interest to scenes of the deepest and wildest character.  Every night we tied our ark to a tree, and built a fire on shore.  Sometimes we narrowly escaped going over falls, and once encountered a world of labor and trouble by getting into a wrong channel.  I made myself as useful and agreeable as possible to all.  I had learned to row a skiff with dexterity during my residence on Lake Dunmore, and turned this art to account by taking the ladies ashore, as we floated on with our ark, and picked up specimens while they culled shrubs and flowers.  In this way, and by lending a ready hand at the “sweeps” and at the oars whenever there was a pinch, I made myself agreeable.  The worst thing we encountered was rain, against which our rude carpentry was but a poor defence.  We landed at everything like a town, and bought milk, and eggs, and butter.  Sometimes the Seneca Indians were passed, coming up stream in their immensely long pine canoes.  There was perpetual novelty and freshness in this mode of wayfaring.  The scenery was most enchanting.  The river ran high, with a strong spring current, and the hills frequently rose in most picturesque cliffs.

1818.  I do not recollect the time consumed in this descent.  We had gone about three hundred miles, when we reached Pittsburgh.  It was the 28th of March when we landed at this place, which I remember because it was my birthday.  And I here bid adieu to the kind and excellent proprietor of the ark, L. Pettiborne, Esq., who refused to receive any compensation for my passage, saying, prettily, that he did not know how they could have got along without me.

I stopped at one of the best hotels, kept by a Mrs. McCullough, and, after visiting the manufactories and coal mines, hired a horse, and went up the Monongahela Valley, to explore its geology as high as Williamsport.  The rich coal and iron beds of this part of the country interested me greatly; I was impressed with their extent, and value, and the importance which they must eventually give to Pittsburgh.  After returning from this trip, I completed my visits to the various workshops and foundries, and to the large glassworks of Bakewell and of O’Hara.

I was now at the head of the Ohio River, which is formed by the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela.  My next step was to descend this stream; and, while in search of an ark on the borders of the Monongahela, I fell in with a Mr. Brigham, a worthy person from Massachusetts, who had sallied out with the same view.  We took passage together on one of these floating houses, with the arrangements of which I had now become familiar.  I was charmed with the Ohio; with its scenery, which was every moment shifting to the eye; and with the incidents of such a novel voyage.  Off Wheeling we made fast to another ark, from the Monongahela, in charge of Capt.  Hutchinson, an